Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on 21st February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA, one of eight children. Like a number of other black singers in the U.S., she was inspired as a child by Marian Anderson, and began singing at her local church, also showing great talent as a pianist. Her public debut, a piano recital, was made at the age of ten. Her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white audience members. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.
Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late nineties) was a strict Methodist minister; her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman and sometime barber who suffered bouts of ill-health. Mrs Waymon worked as a maid, and her employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons for the little girl. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Eunice's continued education.
At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first Black classical pianist. She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed this rejection, which fueled her hatred of racism, was because she was black.
Simone turned to blues and jazz after getting her start at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, taking the name Nina Simone in 1954; "Nina" was her boyfriend's nickname for her, and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret. She first came to public notice in 1959 with her wrenching rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), her only Top-Forty hit in the United States. This was soon followed by the single "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (this was also a hit in the 1980s in the United Kingdom when used for television advertisements for Chanel No 5 perfume).
Throughout the 1960s, Simone was involved in the civil rights movement and recorded a number of political songs, including "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" (later covered by Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway), "Backlash Blues", "Mississippi Goddam" (a response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four black children), "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", and Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny", from The Threepenny Opera, re-cast in a southern town.
In 1961, Simone recorded a version of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun", which was then covered by folk-blues artist, Dave Van Ronk, and later recorded by Bob Dylan, where it was picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit. Other songs she is famous for include "I Put a Spell on You" (originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins), The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun", "Four Women", Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released", the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", and "Ain't Got No (I Got Life)". The latter, from the musical Hair, was her debut in the UK charts, reaching number two in 1968, and a remixed version of the recording by Groovefinder was a UK Top Thirty hit in 2006.
Broadway musicals also supplied several hits for Simone: "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "Love Me or Leave Me", "Feeling Good", and "Ne Me Quitte Pas". Also "You Can Have Him" on the LP Live at Town Hall recorded when she was twenty-six years old; at the end of this operatic performance, which displays her great skill as an actress as well as a musician, she whoops with joy. This single recording encapsulates her extraordinary power, wit, flexibility, sensuality and occasional menace.
In 1987 Nina experienced a resurgence in popularity when "My Baby Just Cares for Me", a track from her first Bethlehem Records album (1958) became a huge hit in the UK and elsewhere. Nina's versatility as an artist was evident in all her music, which often had a folk-music simplicity.
In a single concert, she moved easily from gospel-inspired tunes to blues and jazz and, in numbers like "For All We Know", to numbers infused with European classical stylings, and counterpoint fugues.
Throughout most of her career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Flemming and guitarist and musical director Al Shackman.
In 1971, Simone left the United States following disagreements with her agents, record labels, and the tax authorities, citing racism as the reason. She returned in 1978 and was arrested for tax evasion (she had withheld several years of income tax as a protest against the Vietnam War). She lived in various countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, continuing to perform into her 60s. In the 1980s, she performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. In 1995, Simone reportedly shot and wounded her neighbour's son with an air pistol after his laughing disturbed her concentration.
She had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which Simone strenuously took issue.
Though her onstage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her adoring audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title the "High Priestess of Soul."
In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. She had been ill with cancer for several years before she died on 21st April 2003 in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet.
Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her song "I Loves You Porgy." She has also received fifteen Grammy Award nominations. On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone. Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) named a street after her, the Nina Simonestraat. Simone lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2010 a statue in her honor was erected in Trade Street, Tryon, North Carolina, her place of birth.
*Official site
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Nina Simone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Daddy you know what I wanna hear
I want some more and then some of that
I love you only dear
I want some more and then some
Oh how you feel
And then when you done told me
How much you love me
And you're through
Start right back again
I've made the same mistake
I know the awful ache
Of a little heart that's been double crossed
The waiting's been so long so long
It's hard to be believing
I thought I'd missed my guess
I thought happiness for me was lost
I want more some more
Some more and then some
You know how I love that stuff
Whisper from now on till Doomsday
But I never
No I never no I never
Will get enough
In this song, Nina Simone is singing to her lover, asking him to keep telling her how much he loves her. She asks him to tell her more and then some, indicating that she wants him to keep going even when he feels like he's said it all. She wants to hear how he feels about her, and wants to be reassured of his love continuously. Simone compares her desire for this constant affirmation to an addiction, saying that she will never get enough of it.
Simone also talks about the pain of being deceived in love, saying that she knows what it feels like to have her heart broken. This suggests that her need for constant reassurance may stem from past hurt in her relationships. She acknowledges that it's hard to believe in happiness after experiencing such pain, but yet she still craves more of her lover's affection.
This song is a beautiful showcase of Nina Simone's emotional depth and talent as a performer. It's a passionate, soulful plea for love and affirmation, and captures the feeling of being completely consumed by one's emotions. It's a powerful reminder of how much we all need to feel loved and valued, and how important it is to express this to those we care about.
Line by Line Meaning
Tell me more and then some
Please keep telling me more and more about your love.
Daddy you know what I wanna hear
You know exactly what I want to hear from you.
I want some more and then some of that
I want more and more of the love you have for me.
I love you only dear
I only love you, my dear.
I want some more and then some
I want more and more expressions of your love.
Oh how you feel
Tell me how you feel about me and our love.
And then when you done told me
And once you've finished telling me how much you love me...
About a million times
...even if you've said it a million times before...
How much you love me
...please tell me again how much you love me.
And you're through
And once you're done...
Start right back again
...start telling me again from the beginning.
I've made the same mistake
I know what it feels like to make the same mistake over and over again.
I know the awful ache
I know the pain that comes with that mistake.
Of a little heart that's been double-crossed
Of a heart that has been deceived by someone it trusted.
The waiting's been so long so long
I've been waiting for love for a long time, a really long time.
It's hard to be believing
It's hard to believe in love when it takes so long to find it.
I thought I'd missed my guess
I thought I would never find love.
I thought happiness for me was lost
I thought I would never be happy.
I want more some more
I want more and more love.
Some more and then some
I want more love and then even more love.
You know how I love that stuff
You know how much I love hearing about your love for me.
Whisper from now on till Doomsday
Keep whispering sweet nothings to me until the end of time.
But I never
But I will never...
No I never no I never
...never...
Will get enough
...get tired of hearing you express your love for me.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BILLIE HOLIDAY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@lornaayatess3478
Tell me more and then some
Daddy you know what I wanna hear
I want some more and then some of that
I love you only dear
I want some more and then some
Oh how you feel
And then when you done told me
About a million times
How much you love me
And you're through
Start right back again
I've made the same mistake
I know the awful ache
Of a little heart that's been double crossed
The waiting's been so long so long
It's hard to be believing
I thought I'd missed my guess
I thought happiness for me was lost
I want more some more
Some more and then some
You know how I love that stuff
Whisper from now on till Doomsday
But I never
No I never no I never
Will get enough
@diarahyde9757
Lyrics (best I could do)
Tell me more and then some
Daddy you know what I wanna hear
I want some more and then some of that
I love you only dear
I want some more and then some
Oh how you feel
And then when you done told me
About a million times
How much you love me
And you're through
Start right back again
I've made the same mistake
I know the awful ache
Of a little heart that's been double crossed
The waiting's been so long so long
It's hard to be believing
I thought I'd missed my guess
I thought happiness for me was lost
I want more some more
Some more and then some
You know how I love that stuff
Whisper from now on till Doomsday
But I never
No I never no I never
Will get enough
@lindagoins736
ITS BEEN SAID WHEN YOU HAVE A GUT FEELING ABOUT SOMETHING ,OR LISTEN TO YOUR FIRST INSTINCT... IT PAYS...
WHEN YOU KNOW WHATS FULLY GOING ON WITH YOUR PARTNER ITS EASY TO SAY TELL ME MORE AND MORE AND THEN SOME...
BUT WOOL OVER THE EYES AINT A GOOD THING AND THATS WHEN YOU WANT MORE AND MORE AND THEN SOME INFORMATION...
IF I WERE A THIRD WHEEL ... TELL ME THE NAMES OF 1 & 2 ...
OR COUNT ME OUT...
@Wolfhoundersful
Tell me more and then some
Daddy you know what I wanna hear
I want some more and then some of that
I love you only dear
I want some more and then some
Oh how you feel
And then when you done told me
About a million times
How much you love me
And you're through
Start right back again
I've made the same mistake
I know the awful ache
Of a little heart that's been double crossed
The waiting's been so long so long
It's hard to be believing
I thought I'd missed my guess
I thought happiness for me was lost
I want more some more
Some more and then some
You know how I love that stuff
Whisper from now on till Doomsday
But I never
No I never no I never
Will get enough
@sahpreemking1163
If Snowfall introduced you to the magic of the talented Nina Simone, then welcome to what real music sounds like!
@vellbrown8121
I'm with u when your right😂😂😂
@lando34bang64
Talk to em
@haroldlujahmuzik213
Facts... It’s crazy cuz I’ve never heard the song but I love Nina Simone.. Snowfall brought me here but I knew it was her once I heard her voice. It’s not a man ppl...
@sahpreemking1163
@@haroldlujahmuzik213 Nina was bringing it and in my opinion, is a very underrated singer and cultural icon in terms of recognition. Also, Snow Fall has been dropping some serious musical fire.
@haroldlujahmuzik213
@@sahpreemking1163 I agree she was underrated but she was the best even then. She set the tone. She just started gettin credit once it was too late n she passed away. Nina molded ppl...
@hardaway350
Snowfall bought me here! Now this is REAL MUSIC
@MrBarmore90222
😮 me too
@cosmic_sunflower3864
I swear the Harmonica is such a precious, underrated instrument. Great song.❤
@RomeoDiG1022
Snowfall didn’t bring me here my grandma did but I applaud the writers for putting this into their work 🔥🔥⛽️